DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife announces 2018 Delaware Fishing Photo Contest winners

First-place winner in the DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife 2018 Delaware Fishing Photo Contest “The Fish of the 10,000 Casts,” taken by Israel Mora of Wilmington, of his son Bryan holding a muskellunge caught in the Brandywine River

DOVER – DNREC’s Division of Fish & Wildlife announced today that Israel Mora of Wilmington has been chosen as first-place winner of the 2018 Delaware Fishing Photo Contest. The winning photo – titled “The Fish of the 10,000 Casts,” and featuring Mora’s son Bryan holding a muskellunge caught from the Brandywine River – will be featured on the cover of the 2019 Delaware Fishing Guide, with four other winning photos displayed inside the guide.

The other contest winners are:

  • Second place: “My First Fish” by Guinn Paxton of Seaford for his photo of wife and granddaughter on the Nanticoke River.
  • Honorable mention: “Mase Man Reeling in the Big One” by Dana Bourdon of Wilmington for her photo of son Mason on Trap Pond.
  • Honorable mention: “My First Catch” by Kira Foos of Lewes for her photo of son Ethan on Killens Pond.
  • Honorable mention: “The Kindness of a Stranger” by Rebecca Snow of Dover for her photo showing a stranger helping her son Declan reel in a fish at Bellevue State Park.

The winning entries are posted on the Fish & Wildlife photo contest webpage, along with information about the annual photo contests.

Three judges – Division of Fish & Wildlife Director David Saveikis and division staff amateur photographers Kerri Yandrich and Rebecca Hoover – selected the top five entries. Judges were looking for well composed photos that best portrayed this year’s contest theme, ‘“REEL’ Good Time.”

“Our fishing photo contest encourages anglers of all ages to experience and enjoy Delaware’s great outdoors, especially children, who are our current generation of conservationists,” DNREC Secretary Shawn M. Garvin said. “These photos portray anglers enjoying the great sport of fishing, and we hope they inspire others to do the same. We encourage other Delaware photographers to enter next year’s contest to capture the angling experience.”

Details for the Division of Fish & Wildlife’s 2019 Fishing Photo Contest will be announced in April.

The Division of Fish & Wildlife’s annual Hunting Photo Contest is currently accepting entries through Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019. Information and forms are available on the Division of Fish & Wildlife’s website or may be requested by calling Jennifer Childears at 302-739-9120, or email Jennifer.childears@delaware.gov.

Follow DNREC’s Division of Fish & Wildlife on Facebook, www.facebook.com/DelawareFishWildlife.

Contact: Joanna Wilson, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902

Vol. 48, No. 338